Managing a host of different players is crucial for the quality outcome of large construction projects – Itten+Brechbühl AG works on the Flexible Office Building (FOB) project
The Flexible Office Building project is a 4-storey office building with an underground technical central constructed for the Roche Pharma AG in Grenzach-Wyhlen, Germany. General planner on the large construction project, Itten+Brechbühl AG is in charge of the BIM coordination as well as defining the BIM processes in the project. The work has just progressed to the realisation stage on the construction site.
Itten+Brechbühl AG is a Swiss architectural and general planning company focusing on complex buildings and large construction projects. With over 300 employees, the company has seven offices in Switzerland and three in Germany.
Constanze Hopf, BIM manager at Itten+Brechbühl AG, said: “The models we deal with contain so much information that it’s impossible to check them manually or visually.
“When you invest in the BIM method and model checking, you find issues or planning problems a lot earlier in your projects that may otherwise not arise until on the construction site. In the end, in my opinion, this brings largely savings on the construction site and this is what our clients benefit most from.”
At Itten+Brechbühl AG, ensuring the aggregated model contains no hard clashes between different disciplines is seen as the business as usual, the basic work.
“For us, one of the main purposes of Solibri is that on top of the simple clash detection, there are so many other possibilities to actually look at the design qualities, planning qualities, and so on,” says Marc Pancera, head of BIM research & development at Itten+Brechbühl AG.
“For instance, we aim at assuring that the required information is in the right place in a model. Therefore, we work a lot with Solibri to make sure that the quality of a model is at the needed level, that it contains all the required information and only then we proceed with it in the project,” he added.
“People often talk about coordination as if it was only clash detection, but quality assurance is so much more.”
– Marc Pancera
In the Flexible Office Building project, Hopf lists a host of situations where Solibri has been a significant help for the team.
“You get a quick overview, for instance, in terms of which provisions for voids have been accepted by the civil engineer, which have already been taken over by the architect, or which don’t fit with the HVAC planning. We’ve also found it very helpful to have the rules for checking the space in front of doors or windows to see that they open,” explains Hopf.
Another important check on the FOB project has been ensuring there’s enough space in front of the HVAC components. “This is really important for the operation of the building in terms of maintenance in the future,” adds Hopf.
Consequently, an essential part of using the BIM method in the Flexible Office Building project is to define information in the model for future building maintenance purposes together with the client.
Hopf commented: “We help to solve, for example, wherein the model is most suitable to have this data.”
Naturally linked to this, the client defines their own processes for the facility management, which relates back to what type of information may be needed. The best outcome comes from shared round table discussions.
Hopf added: “It’s a big step in developing digital workflows for Roche Pharma AG, as well.
“The main benefit is having all the information structured in one place. For example, at any time you can click on an HVAC component and immediately have an overview of all the related information. You can access all the available datasheets and make comments within the model on this component.”
Pancera sees that Solibri has become the gatekeeper for quality and the main core of his team’s actions.
“We started customising and creating our own Solibri rules about a year ago. We started with our first ideas with classifications and as our team grew, we started building up rulesets by ourselves. Now, we are at a stage where we go further and start implementing rules which we can then even offer to others out there,” he says.
The new Solibri Developer Platform, still in the BETA phase, opens up even more possibilities for developers to create even more detailed or complex rulesets, and Itten+Brechbühl AG is keen on being a part of the development.
“It’s very interesting how it makes using rules even cleverer and improves our daily processes. This creates many advantages and is very useful for us and our clients,” Pancera reflects.
Project details
Project name: Grenzach B45-FOB, Flexible Office Building
Client: Roche Pharma AG, Grenzach-Wyhlen
Location: Grenzach-Wyhlen, Germany
General planner: Itten+Brechbühl AG
Architect: Christ & Gantenbein
Civil Engineer: Schnetzer Puskas Ingenieure AG
HVAC planner: ZWP Ingenieur-AG
